Mahou Ashikabi Negima (Version 2)
by Juubi-K
Summary: On a mission to Shin Tokyo to investigate the Sekirei, Negi and Asuna find themselves in the middle of the Sekirei plan. Now they must guide Minato Sahashi to a destiny no one could have foreseen, while their own destinies change in ways they could never have imagined. (Redo of original)
1. Chapter 1

**Mahou Ashikabi Negima**

**Version 2**

**A Negima and Sekirei crossover fanfiction**

**Based on concepts developed by Zaru and Juubi-K**

**Written by Juubi-K**

**Chapter One**

_**Kamikura Island**_

It began as the sun rose.

The ships approached the island, their mighty shapes silhouetted against the rising sun. They moved in close formation, ready to support one-another against attack.

But nothing came. No swarm of missiles, no shoal of torpedoes, not even the roar of gunfire. The island before them, a craggy mass of grey rock jutting out of the water, appeared entirely deserted.

The soldiers and sailors set about their work. One of the ships, a destroyer, held position off the coast. The transports dipped in the water, like a bird stooping to drink, their bow doors clunking open. Landing craft slid easily from the open doors, sweeping over the surf to shore beyond. Helicopters took off from the assault carrier, spreading out over the island.

It was going smoothly. Very smoothly. The landing was thus far completely unopposed.

Unopposed, but not unobserved.

Five figures stood on a rock outcropping, gazing down at the unfolding invasion. The four women were dressed in black, their grey haori coats and long hair billowing in the wind. The lone man also wore black, but with a long yellow scarf. Their bodies were lean and well-muscled, thrumming with a power not seen on Earth in many thousands of years.

A power that would, in a few moments, be unleashed once again.

"So annoying," grumbled one of the women. Her long hair was an elegant shade of purple, her face set in a lazy expression. "They just can't leave us alone."

"Stop complaining, Kazehana" groused the man, whose hair was a silver-grey mop. He regarded the landing troops with shrewd, narrow eyes. "Besides, you reek of sake."

"Hard to say who they are," commented the shortest of the women, who wore her red hair in a long braid. She tittered, adjusting her glasses as she took in the sight. "If I had to guess, I'd say it was a coalition."

"Strange," mused a grey-haired woman, with a face like a hunting bird. "We always argue, yet its times like these that make us a proper team."

"Pull yourselves together," ordered the fourth woman, stepping out in front of the others. Her hair was also purple, but in a lighter shade than that of her colleague. "Behind us, one hundred and three of our companions sleep defencelessly." She scanned her eyes over them, cold as ice yet bright with resolve. "You know the price of failure."

"Yes Miya," sighed Kazehana. "We know."

"Well then," spoke up the redhead. "I'll start."

She turned her face skyward, closing her eyes as she activated her mysterious power.

"What do you see?" asked the man. "Matsu?"

"Calm down Mutsu," quipped the grey-haired woman, smirking. "No need to be so impatient."

"I don't like wasting time, Karasuba," Mutsu retorted, his face grim. "She'd better not be surfing doujinshi websites again."

"Enemy units," Matsu spoke up, opening her eyes. "Twenty-eight tanks, various types. Fifteen infantry fighting vehicles, various types. Twelve combat helicopters, various types. Two landing platform docks. One multirole destroyer." She tittered again. "The most they've ever sent."

"Even so," Kazehana said, gazing up at the approaching helicopters. "They're hardly what you might call…enemies." She raised her hand to the sky.

"_Hana Senpuu_!" The wind coiled around her, expanding out into a roaring tornado. The wind caught the two foremost helicopters, spinning them around and around in an ever-decreasing spiral. With a crash of metal and glass the helicopters smashed together, flattening like crushed soda cans. But even as they fell to the ground Kazehana was choosing fresh targets; three more gunships rising from a shallow canyon nearby.

Karasuba watched with languid indifference as the three newcomers were hurled to the ground in turn. They were not her concern, and never could have been. The hovering gunships had a certain elegance, and they _might _have done some harm had they unleashed their more powerful weapons, but Kazehana would have to be _utterly _paralytic for such machines to catch her off-guard.

She smiled in satisfaction as she saw the tanks, blocky and sand-coloured, a few hundred metres away. They hadn't seen her yet, and that was good. The smaller guns were no threat, for her aura alone could stop their bullets. But the bigger guns each fired a tungsten-carbide dart as long as her forearm, enough to reduce her body to a fine mist.

Not that she had any intention of being hit by one.

Her smile widened as she saw Mutsu materialize in front of the tanks, his yellow scarf billowing in the breeze. She saw him kneel down, touching the scabbarded tip of his sword to the rock in front of him, and felt a thrill as he poured his power into it. The ground shuddered and cracked, flinging the tanks around like so many toys. Then the humans appeared, swarming from their tanks like rats fleeing their nests, wailing their terror at an enemy they did not understand.

Karasuba bared her teeth. She was a predator, and they had shown their backs.

She _moved, _her power bearing her through the air like an arrow from a bow. With effortless grace she aimed herself for one of the upturned tanks, over which one of the human soldiers was frantically scrambling. She landed next to him, and with a single smooth motion cut him in half. As the blood spurted she was already moving, jumping down behind another fleeing soldier. With one quick slash he was down, and Karasuba set her eyes on another. He was a few metres away, but made the tragic mistake of turning to see what horror was pursuing him. In an instant Karasuba was upon him, a single upper-cut slicing through his flak jacket and tearing him open.

But there was more to come. Karasuba saw them; four infantrymen clad in sandy fatigues and black armour, rifles at the ready. She could sense their fear, but there was pride too, and anger. They had seen comrades cut down like animals before them, and they must have known there could be no retreat. They would kill her, or they would die trying.

Karasuba let out a hiss of pleasure as she charged. Bullets whistled past, the wind of their passage brushing her cheek like a lover's kiss. She zig-zagged to throw off their aim, her aura deflecting the shots that came too close. She leapt, coming down in the middle of them. Only then did they cease firing, apparently out of surprise.

With a quick thrust, Karasuba downed the one in front of her. She turned as she drew back her blade, slashing another across the waist just under his armour. The third raised his rifle to fire, but Karasuba brought her sword up over her head, then down in an overhead diagonal, cutting him open from neck to hip. The last soldier managed to fire, his bullets tearing through her haori as she ducked. Karasuba jumped, vaulting through the air like an acrobat to land in front of him. With a horizontal slash she cut his rifle in half, then poured her power into the backswing, cutting through armour and flesh to end him.

From her vantage point atop a rock outcropping, Miya watched the slaughter. As Karasuba's last opponent fell, she turned her eyes out towards the sea, and the three silver-grey shapes bobbing on the distant waves.

Three ships. Only three.

She didn't know much about the world beyond the island, beyond what she had read in the books her beloved Takehito brought her, and in the internet articles Matsu had shown her. Out of all of them Matsu knew the most about humans, and their weapons.

Miya didn't know much, but she knew enough; enough to know that the humans had far greater armies, and far greater weapons, than anything that had appeared that morning. The force that had come to challenge them was larger and more powerful than what anything that had come before, but it had fallen within minutes.

"_Why?" _she asked silently, remembering the battles, and the dead. "_Why do you come here to die? Why so few? Why so weak?"_

She knew the answer. The answer was behind her, sleeping in the womb that had born them to this world. The foetuses in their tanks, the frozen embryos, unconscious and unknowing, waiting to breathe, to live.

They wanted the little birds.

Miya stared hard at the furthest warship, feeling her power rise. She laid a hand on her sword hilt, pouring her energy into the blade, focussing her being into a single point.

She drew. A particle-thin blade of deadly energy leapt from the blade, slicing out across the sea. Miya saw it pass through the ship, and for a moment she saw it split apart along a perfect, clean cut. Then something exploded, and the ship was consumed in a ball of fire.

Miya barely noticed, for she was already targeting the second ship. Another perfect draw, another killing blade, another ship bisected, before it too vanished in fire. Another quick slash, and the third ship was gone.

The sounds of battle began to fade, until all that remained was the crackle of the flames, and the occasional cry of dying men, cut short by Karasuba's blade. Miya took it all in, her eyes unblinking.

It was over.

It was beginning.

* * *

_**Mahora Academy, many years later**_

"Ah, Negi-kun!" Dean Konoemon Konoe looked up with a smile on his face as Negi Springfield strode into his office. "Thank you for coming so quickly."  
"It's always a pleasure, Dean-san."

Negi Springfield, trainee mage and English teacher, came to a stop in front of Konoemon's enormous desk. He was looking well, the elderly headmaster thought, with satisfaction, and not a little relief. It had been only a few days since he had faced the demon Graf Hermann, a battle that had stretched his mind, body, and maybe even his soul to the limit.

"And you, Asuna-kun." The Dean turned his eyes to the boy's companion. "I hope this wasn't an inconvenience."

"It's fine, Dean-sensei." Asuna Kagurazaka seemed to be in good spirits too. Konoemon regarded them for a few moments, marvelling at such a funny pair. Negi was ten years old, studious, diligent, and self-contained. He had short red hair, tied in a short pony-tail at the nape of his neck, and red eyes that shone with youth and life. On his nose sat a pince-nez of all things, which combined with his green suit made him look like a librarian or a university professor, but for his height.

Asuna Kagurazaka could not have been more different, even if she were not female and several years his senior. Her hair was a fiery orange, arranged in a pair of long pigtails hanging to her waist; each tied with two bells on a red ribbon, her trademark. Her eyes were green and blue, and behind them Konoemon knew there lay a noble spirit. It was only unfortunate that she tended to express it through random violence and outbursts of volcanic fury.

And yet, something had happened. Something, it wasn't quite clear what, had brought the two of them together. To see the two of them together, one could almost think they were family.

Almost.

"And I see you're there too Chamo-kun." Sure enough, there was the small white ermine sitting on Negi's shoulder. Of course he was _not _an ermine, not as such. Ermines as a rule could not talk, or walk on their hind legs; nor did they smoke or make a hobby of collecting young ladies' underthings. But that was neither here nor there.

"I've called the three of you here," he began, shuffling through the papers on his desk, "to ask a small favour of Negi-kun."

"I'm happy to be of help, Dean-sensei," Negi insisted brightly.

"I need the three of you to pay a short visit to Shin Tokyo." Konoemon finally found the dossier, and slid it across the desk to Negi. "There's been some strange goings-on there recently, and I'd like you to look into them."

Negi opened the dossier, which contained a set of photographs. Some were blurred, others grainy, all of them amateurish; but Negi could make out female figures in what appeared to be athletic or fighting poses. They all seemed to have very large…

"Wow!" Chamo-kun exclaimed, his eyes bulging at the sight. "Those are some bodacious battling babes!"

"So," Asuna drawled, leaning over his shoulder to peruse the pictures. "A bunch of top-heavy warrior women wreaking havoc in Shin Tokyo. Looks like bad hentai."

"Uh…yes." Konoemon suppressed a chuckle at the look on their faces. "It's been kept from public attention for the moment, but as you can see from some of those pictures these women have some unusual abilities."  
"Are they mages, Dean-sensei?"

"Not as far as we know," the dean admitted. "The association has tried to identify them via scrying, amongst other things, but they're not like any mages we've ever encountered. We really need someone dependable on the ground to provide more detailed information."

"I'm flattered that you would have such confidence in me," Negi said gravely. "But shouldn't someone more senior handle this assignment?"

"That's the trouble," said a familiar voice behind them. "They tried and failed." Both children turned to see a tall man with spiky grey hair closing the door behind him, an easy smile on his face.

"Takahata-sensei!" Asuna spun on her heel, her face lighting up as she saw her favourite teacher. Konoemon chuckled inwardly at her reaction. Takamichi Takahata had been the father she never had, but her feelings seemed to go well beyond that.

"Failed, Takamichi?" Negi looked surprised.

"The association has been trying to figure out those unusual ladies for some time." Takamichi strolled across the office and stood next to the desk. "Unfortunately they seem to value their privacy. Of our agents who've actually managed to get close to them, none of have survived."

The office went very cold.

"So you'll be coming with us right?" Asuna bounced on her feet like the over-excited schoolgirl she was. "Takahata-sensei?"

"I'm afraid not." Takamichi gave her an indulgent smile. "I'm tied up with some other stuff right now."

"So then Negi-kun," Konoemon cut in as Asuna slumped in despair. "Would you be willing to accept this assignment starting tomorrow?"

"I'm happy to help in any way I can Dean-sensei."

"Excellent. Takamichi will handle your teaching duties in the meantime." Konoemon reached into his desk, pulled out an envelope, and pushed it across to Negi. "These are your travel plans and tickets. I've arranged accommodation for you at a guest house named Maison Izumo for one week, and more as needed. The landlady is entirely trustworthy in all matters."

"Very well, Dean-sensei." Negi opened the envelope and perused the contents. In addition to the plans and tickets there were two more photographs. One showed a house in the traditional Japanese style, which Negi assumed to be Maison Izumo. The other showed a young woman with long purple hair dressed in a kimono.

"_She seems nice,_" Negi thought innocently.

"A word of warning Negi-kun," Takamichi spoke up. His countenance was uncharacteristically grim. "Your mission is to observe only. Do _not _engage them if you can at all avoid it, and if you spot any in black and carrying swords, _run._ You understand?"

"Of course, Takamichi."

"A week," Asuna groaned, lost in the depths of despair. "A week…Takahata-sensei..."

* * *

**(Here it is, at last. I only hope this new version serves to correct the failures of the old. **

**To make one thing clear, this takes place not long after Negi fought Graf Hermann and before the festival arc. As such, while he's quite potent, he's not the god he's destined to become. I want to avoid the problems I had in the last version, with every other reviewer complaining that Negi wasn't as powerful as he should be.) **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_**Shin Tokyo**_

He had failed.

The carriage around him was quiet, but for the familiar click-click of the wheels underneath. The sound did little to distract him from his sorrow, and the vague sense of utter meaningless that hovered penumbra-like around it.

Minato Sahashi was not a happy young man. Twice now he had taken the entrance exam for Shin Tokyo University, and twice he had failed. The sensation of despair, of sinking into the ground as he stared up at the pass list, was becoming painfully familiar. The worst part was that he had little or no idea what to do about it.

He didn't particularly want to go home. All the waited for him there was his mother's disappointment, his younger sister's mockery, and some chump-change job if anyone could be bothered to hire him. As for other careers, other paths in life, nothing really came to mind. Even when he wasn't depressed, he just didn't know what he wanted to do with his life.

He glanced out of the window, looking for something to take his mind off his situation. The cityscape of Shin Tokyo stretched out before him, its grandeur reminding him painfully of the optimism that had drawn him there just over a year earlier. Looming over it all was the massive art-deco shape of Teito Tower; a testament to the power and ambition of the MBI corporation, whose HQ it was.

"_MBI, huh_," Minato thought. "_At least someone's successful in this city_."

Mid Bio Informatics was a relative newcomer, having risen only within his lifetime. But in that time it had become a major player in high-tech precision manufacturing, as well as research and development in any number of fields. It had branches in every country in the developed world, and it was known to have its own private army with military-grade equipment. Hardly a week went by without some politician, businessman, or journalist denouncing MBI for having too much money or too much power, with one politician actually labelling the company a threat to democracy.

If it was, no one was really taking it seriously. That very morning, as he'd trudged off the university grounds, Minato had seen a news report describing how MBI had just bought up eighty per cent of Shin Tokyo stocks. As of that morning, or whenever the deal had actually gone into effect, MBI effectively owned Shin Tokyo.

A murmur of conversation drew Minato's attention away from the window. He glanced along the carriage, and saw a teenage girl and a young boy of about ten years standing at the next door along. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the boy's bright red hair, and his facial features. What was a foreign child doing riding the metro with a teenage girl?

He sighed, feeling a fool. Why would it be so strange in a city like Shin Tokyo? He'd seen people of every colour and race imaginable, at least in the city centre where all the important stuff was. The boy was probably an exchange student, and the girl a member of his host family, no doubt taking him on a fun day out.

As if anything that strange, that interesting, would happen to him.

"_Yeah right. And the Gods will drop a cute girl from the sky to be my wife."_

Minato felt the train slowing down, and the announcer called out his station. He felt the cold on his cheek as he stepped off the train. Mild curiosity caused him to glance up the platform, and he saw that the girl and boy he had noticed before were also getting off. Putting them out of his mind, he headed down the steps to the street. His apartment was only a short walk away. He needed to be alone, to think, to let his depression wear off.

"_I'll never get a girlfriend like this_."

The thunderclap turned his blood to ice water, shocking him from his reverie. He glanced around, wondering where the sound could have come from. It sounded like a firework going off, or an explosion.

"Get out of the way please!" cried a high-pitched voice. Minato looked up, into a cloudless sky, and saw something falling out of the sun.

"Please move from there!" it cried again. But Minato could not move. He could only stare up in disbelief as something plummeted towards him.

The next thing he knew, he was lying sprawled on the street, in some pain, and with a very heavy weight on his chest. Shaking his head to drive away the dizziness, Minato craned his neck to look at his chest.

What he saw was a young woman's posterior. A very well-shaped young woman's posterior, covered by a very well-fitting pair of white cotton panties. Minato felt all his blood run to his head as he took in the sight. This was the closest he had ever gotten to it.

"Oww!" a female voice moaned, and Minato felt the pressure on his chest ease as the girl clambered off him. "I should've known that building was too far to leap." She turned around, revealing a heart-shaped face with brown hair reaching just past her chin and wide, copper-coloured eyes.

"Thank you very much!" she said, smiling brightly. "You must be the kind person who caught me, right?"

"I…I wouldn't say caught," babbled a spellbound Minato. He had never seen anything quite so beautiful in all nineteen years of his life. He felt heat in his cheeks.

"_She's so cute!_"

For that matter, it was only then that he noticed what she was wearing. She wore what looked like the upper half of a Shrine Maiden's traditional costume, stretched very tight over a pair of unusually large breasts, which were in turn held up by a wide pink obi, tied in a bow at the back. Beneath the obi was a short red pleated skirt, while a pair of powerful-looking legs were encased in white stockings and knee-length boots. It was an outfit better suited to a martial arts girl in some manga, but there it was, right in front of him.

"Look out!" The girl leapt at him, pushing him backwards. An instant later the pavement where they had been squatting exploded, the force enough to send them both flying. Minato hit the pavement hard, the girl landing on top of him, her breasts bouncing against his face.

"There's no use running away!" called a female voice from above them. The voice had a hard, sneering edge to it. Minato looked up to see two female figures standing on top of a nearby building. He gawped at the sight of their long black hair, and the tight, revealing costumes they wore.

"We'll just come after you again!" called the other one. "So fight us!"

"I can't fight!" the girl shouted back, standing up. There was an air of determination about her. "Not yet!"

"Even if you don't feel like it," sneered one of the other two girls. "We certainly do!"

Minato stared in disbelief as lightning crackled about their hands. The two girls leapt from their vantage point, revolving like acrobats as they descended. Minato was transfixed, wondering how on earth this could be happening.

And then the world became a blur as the brown-haired girl grabbed his hand and sped away along the street, so fast that he fluttered behind her like a windsock.

"Hey!" one of the black-haired girls called after her. "Get back here!"

Both girls leapt after their quarry, neither of them caring to notice the teenage girl and pre-teen boy staring up at them from the metro platform.

"Holy cow!" Asuna exclaimed, watching them go. "Were they Sekirei?"

"You might be right!" Negi reached into his pocket, glanced back and forth to make sure no one was watching, and pulled out a short, brightly-coloured wand with a golden star at the tip. The training wand was a silly, childish-looking thing, but useful for doing magic one-handed. It had the added advantage that any non-mage who saw it would mistake it for a child's toy. Negi was fairly sure no one could see him, but it paid to be cautious. He didn't particularly want to spend the rest of his life as an ermine.

"_Ras tel Ma Scir Magister_." The words reverberated in the air as the magic curled and undulated around them. The tip of the wand glowed, and Asuna watched intently as Negi held it out in the direction the mysterious women had gone. His eyes were squeezed shut, his brow furrowed with concentration.

"Strange," he said, the wand's glow fading. "Very strange."

"You get anything?" Asuna asked.

"Not much I'm afraid. I'll need something a bit more…precise."

"Yeah well let's get out of sight." Asuna glanced around. "Someone might see us up here."

The pair hurried down the steps to street level, then ducked in under the station overhang. Negi set down his backpack, and pulled out what looked to Asuna like a set of night vision goggles. He slipped them on, and turned to the scorched-black patch on the pavement, where the twins' lightning attack had struck. He stared silently at it, every now and again adjusting a small knob on one side. Asuna glanced up and down the street, watching the people pointing at the impact and talking in loud, nervous voices.

"Anything?" she hissed.

"Strange," Negi mused. "Very strange."

"What's strange about it?" Asuna was starting to get annoyed. "Wasn't that just magic?"

"No, it wasn't." Negi took off the goggles. He looked confused. "Not like any magic I've ever seen."

* * *

_**Maison Izumo**_

Maison Izumo was a large house built in the traditional style, with its rooms in the centre and corridors around the outside, with some open to the outside via sliding doors. A fence surrounded it, enclosing a small garden with a paved path reaching to the door.

"Tadaima!" Asuna called, as they crossed the threshold.

"Okairi-nasai!" replied a tall, elegant woman with long purple hair who appeared at the opposite end of the corridor. "Did your day go well?"

"We had a bit of a surprise, Miya-san," Negi replied cheerfully. "We managed to see some Sekirei."

"Oh my!" Miya smiled behind her hand. "Dean Konoe will be so pleased."

"Are you heading out, Miya-san?" Asuna asked, noting the shopping bag in her hands.

"As it happens I am. I need a few groceries before I start dinner. Oh, but it would be bad of me to leave guests alone in the house."

"Then allow me to go." Negi suggested brightly. "I still have my shoes on."

"You would?" Miya seemed surprised by the courtesy. "But you've only just returned."

"I'm happy to be of help," Negi insisted. " Miya gave a barely audible giggle, then put a friendly hand on Negi's head. Asuna rolled her eyes.

"You're such a sweet boy, Negi-kun." Negi's face flushed at the compliment. "So polite and well-raised. Your mother in heaven must be looking down upon you with pride."

"Oh…I…thank you, for your kind words," Negi stammered. He knew that Dean Konoe had mentioned his circumstances in his introductory letter, but hearing it from such a gentle and motherly woman still made him feel strange.

"It must be so hard for you, Negi-kun." Miya caressed his cheek, her purple eyes full of tenderness. "All alone at that school, surrounded by all those high-spirited girls, with no mother to advise you, and to protect you."

"Well I…" Negi's face had turned the colour of his hair. Asuna muttered something that sounded like "gimme a break!"

"I do hope they don't take advantage of you." Miya turned towards Asuna, and something in the older woman's gaze sent a shiver down her spine. "I hope they don't do unspeakable things."

Asuna flinched from her gaze as the air went cold around her. There was a strange, unsettling aura coming from Miya, almost as if some demonic face was hovering around her. Asuna hadn't seen anything quite so creepy in a very long time.

"You'll take good care of Negi-kun, won't you Asuna-chan?" Even her voice made Asuna shiver. "You'll go shopping with him, won't you?"

"Yes, Miya-san," Asuna stammered.

"Good!" Miya proclaimed, beaming as the frigid presence vanished in an instant. "There's no need for you to go just yet. Why don't you both have some tea before you go?"

"Thank you very much, Miya-san." Negi bowed respectfully, which made Miya giggle as she turned and headed back towards the kitchen.

"That woman," Asuna lamented, as soon as Miya was out of sight. "She could scare Nitta-sensei."

"She's not so bad," Negi commented, slipping off his shoes.

"It's all right for you!" Asuna snapped. "She never uses the demon head on you!"

"Of course she doesn't," said a rich, male voice from nearby. Both looked to see a silver-haired young man leaning against the wall of the perpendicular corridor. He wore a white shirt, the collar stylishly unbuttoned, and tight black trousers that made the most of his trim figure. His near-angelic face bore an expression of mild amusement.

"Kagari-san!" Negi blurted out, taken by surprise.

"Oh yeah!" Asuna demanded. She was in no mood to succumb to his charms. "Well how come!? Why does Negi-bozu get special treatment!?"

Kagari chuckled, a sound so delicate and cultured that it might have come from a woman's throat.

"Because he's a child." Kagari swaggered closer and bent down, as if to get a closer look at Negi. "She's always wanted a child in the house."

"Oh." Now Negi felt even more awkward than before. "I…see."

* * *

_**Shin Tokyo, a public park**_

It was a cold night.

Darkness had fallen, and the streetlamps had just come on. Their light was bright, but somehow empty and unfeeling, a poor substitute for the warm radiance of the sun.

The young woman sat where she was on the park bench, her head lowered, her eyes blank. The stolen lab coat and shirt offered neither modesty nor warmth, but she had long since ceased to care. She did not attempt to cover herself, nor to warm herself, not even to move. There seemed little point, for the cold that tormented her near-naked body was naught to the chill in her soul.

There was nothing left for her now. In the blink of an eye, her existence had been rendered meaningless. There would be no Ashikabi, no joyous union. She would never spread her wings, nor recite the holy words. She would never, ever, take flight with the other little birds.

She was no longer one of them. Her wings had been clipped.

It occurred to her that she could die. She might die of hypothermia, or at the hands of one of the degenerates stalking the darkness, though not before he or she had done their pleasure. She did not care if they did. She didn't care how long it took, or how painful it would be. There was no pain they could inflict on her, no matter how degraded they were, that could compare to her current state of being.

So lost was she in despair, the images of her desolation playing over and over again inside her mind, that she barely paid any attention to the footsteps approaching along the path.

"Man I'm starving."

"I'm sure you'll feel better after dinner Asuna. Miya's a wonderful cook."

"You got that right. She's at least as good as Konoka-chan."

Voices. Names. The implication of a place called home. Things she would never know, and did not deserve to know.

"Are you gonna scry tonight?"

"I suppose I could give it a whirl. I can't guarantee anything in a big city like this."

Familiarity. Camaraderie. Maybe even love?

"You know, for somebody who wants to be a great Mage you're not a whole lot of…the hell!?"

A girl's voice, going from sullen to shocked in an instant. She could tell where she was, and where she was facing. She knew what the girl had seen.

"Oh my! Whatever could she be doing there?"

A young boy, considerably younger than the girl. He spoke Japanese, though it was probably not his first language. He was standing right next to the girl, and looking in the same direction.

"She doesn't look at all well. Do you think she might have been hurt?"

"Hey, you might be right."

They were coming closer, their scents brushing at her senses. Suspicion, calculation, the beginnings of fear. They were suspicious of her, fearful of her, wondering how best to destroy her.

"Is that blood?"

"Are you all right?"

Very close now. Not immediately hostile, but still uncertain. A twinge of curiosity broke though her despair, and she raised her head just enough to see them.

She had been right. A teenage girl, and a young boy. She felt concern in the girl's aura, but a rising air of aggression, of indignation. She wondered for a moment if she was one of them.

"Who did this to you?" the girl demanded, growing angrier by the second. "Is the bastard around here?"

He wasn't. She had last seen him inside the MBI building, his eyes wide and desperate, his hands clamped about her throat, an instant before she did it.

"It's all right," the boy said, the sound of his voice like a gentle caress. "We're not going to hurt you."

There was none of the girl's aggression there, none of her anger. There was…warmth…and love. And they were reaching out to her.

"Asuna, look at this." The boy had noticed it, judging by her line of sight. "On her forehead."

"Yeah, I see it," the girl mused, narrowing her eyes as she looked at it. "It was the same as on that girl's outfit. A bird."

They had seen it. Surely now they would understand. Surely now they would see her for the abomination she had become. They would realise that she was of no use to them, that she could never be what they wanted her to be. Such was her destiny.

"Can you tell me your name?" the boy asked, with a smile that made his face light up. "Mine is Negi Springfield, and this is my dear friend, Asuna Kagurazaka." The girl smiled too.

"Friend," she whispered. The pair seemed momentarily taken aback, as if weren't entirely sure she could speak.

"Yes," Negi said earnestly. "Friends."

"Ashikabi…"

"Erm…" Negi looked embarrassed. "I'm…afraid I don't know what that means."

"Akitsu." She raised her head a little further. "I'm…Akitsu."

"Akitsu, why are you all alone out here?"

"And how come you've got no clothes?!" Asuna cut in. "If some guy did this to you, just say the word and I'll take him down!"

"I'm a discarded number," Akitsu admitted in a low voice. "I was defective. He…tried to kill me."

"That's terrible!" Negi exclaimed. Both he and Asuna looked horrified, though Akitsu could not understand why. "Whatever do you mean?"

Akitsu finally raised her head fully, looking at them both in confusion. Did they really not understand? Was it not obvious to them?

Didn't they know what a Sekirei was?

"Well, it's getting very cold." Negi held out a hand. "Won't you come with us, Akitsu? You'll catch your death if you stay out here."

"Come on, Akitsu." The girl held her hand out too, with a cheerful smile. "We can't leave a girl out here alone and half-naked. Come with us."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that."

The voice was arrogant, confident, male. Negi and Asuna spun around as a figure emerged from the shadows. It was a teenage boy with spiky brown hair, clad in a fancy white outfit. His eyes moved lazily from Akitsu to Negi and Asuna, and back again.

"You see," he went on. "I can't let you just take her."

"Who the hell are you?" Asuna demanded, dropping into what looked like a combat stance. "What do you want with her?"

"Hayato Mikogami, at your service." The youth bowed extravagantly. "And I want her for my collection." He smiled as yet more figures stepped into the light behind them. "Beauty belongs to those who can appreciate it, after all."

"She's coming with us," Negi said, his tone clipped with self-control. "She needs help."

"And how do you intend to help her," the boy insisted airily. "You don't even know what she is. You have absolutely _no_ idea of what you've just wandered into the middle of."

The words faded as Akitsu's attention fell on the newcomers. Five females, one male, standing behind him like servants or bodyguards. Akitsu tensed as she picked up on their auras.

She knew what they were.

* * *

Negi gritted his teeth as he placed the bag of groceries down by the bench and pulled his staff from his back.

"Please stand down!" He fixed his eyes on Mikogami, who regarded him with lazy amusement. "I'm warning you!"

One of his companions, a young woman with long brown hair and long-handled scythe in her hands, let out a bark of scornful laughter.

"Warning me?" the youth mocked. "I'm the one who should be warning you. After all, you're the one offering me violence."

"I…" Negi trailed off as he realised the arrogant young man was, strictly speaking, correct.

"Consider this before you menace me," Mikogami went on, smirking. "Who is society going to side with? If I were to call the police right this instant, who will they believe? Me, the respectable Hayato Mikogami? Or a foreign child and a delinquent?"

"Are you trying to get your face smashed in?!" Asuna snarled. "You can call the cops all you want, but it won't do you any good!" She smirked in turn. "I'll just make a little phone call, and we walk right out. We've got powerful friends of our own."

"I'm _sure_ you do."

Negi scanned his eyes over the group. Mikogami didn't seem to be a threat, but his companions were another matter. A tall young man with silver hair stood next to Mikogami, with an air of what Negi at first took to be boredom. Then their gazes met for an instant, and he saw something else.

"_He's like Setsuna-san_," he thought. He could see it in the man's eyes, an intensity that belied his languid manner.

The other five were all young women, looking to be a few years older than Asuna, and rather top-heavy to boot. Two of them appeared to be twins, with blonde hair in twin pigtails. Each wore a matching black minidress with a vertical yellow stripe, and black stockings reaching up their shapely thighs. Both regarded him with looks of thinly-veiled contempt. There was a taller one with long silver hair, wearing a white dress that opened in the middle, standing next to a black-haired woman in a kimono. Last but not least was the one with the scythe, wearing a short black dress with red trim over a white skirt, and black stockings not unlike those of the twins. Her expression had gone from scorn to one of bloodlust.

Negi gritted his teeth behind clenched lips. Despite their oversized bosoms, their bodies were lean and powerful-looking, the bodies of trained fighters. On top of that, he could sense the same strange aura as he had earlier that day.

"_Are these the same as them?_ _Are they Sekirei?_"

"If you two want to fight that badly," Mikogami said airily. "Then I'll indulge you this once. Yomi-chan, Mitsuha-chan." The scythe-wielder's smirk deepened as she sashayed forward.

"The rest of you can go home if you want," Mikogami went on, turning to the others. The black-haired woman bowed humbly, while her silver-haired counterpart flashed him a smile. The two headed off together, but the blonde stayed where she was, apparently enjoying her twin's misfortune.

"I'm taking the schoolgirl," said the scythe-wielder, moving to face Asuna. The annoyed twin stamped her foot.

"Not fair Master!" she snapped, eliciting further sniggering from her twin. "Why am I stuck with the kid?!"

"Now Mitsuha-chan," Mikogami admonished. "Be a good girl and do it for Master, okay?" He flashed what he evidently thought was a ladykiller smile. To Negi's surprise, the blonde warrior actually blushed.

"Now!" Mikogami clapped his hands, enjoying himself. "Girls, introduce yourselves and show these troublemakers what they've gotten themselves into."

"Do we have to?" asked Mitsuha sourly, taking her place opposite Negi. "It's not like this is a real battle. They're blatantly not Sekireis."

"Whatever." Yomi settled easily into a combat stance, gazing at Asuna with bloodlust in her eyes. "I'm Sekirei Number 43, Yomi, and…" She paused. "Hey Master, do you want them dead, maimed, or just brutally done-over?"

"A doing-over will be fine," Mikogami replied, smiling too much. "We don't want to foul the atmosphere now, do we?"

"Oh really?" Asuna snorted. "Well, I'm Asuna Kagurazaka, Seat Number 8, Class 3-A, Mahora Academy. And you'd better not underestimate me." She drew out her Pactio card, eliciting a snort of derision from Yomi.

"Adeat!" At the word of command, the card glowed bright. Mikogami and his Sekireis watched in disbelief as the glowing shape expanded and changed, resolving into a sword as long as Asuna was tall, named Ensis Exorcizans. Negi was more than a little relieved to see it. He would have been mortified if the harisen had come out. Yomi stared at the weapon in mute surprise.

"I don't know how you did that," she snarled, hefting her scythe. "And it doesn't matter!"

Negi watched as Yomi swung her scythe, the blade whistling as it cut through the air. Asuna leapt out of the way as the scythe came down, shattering the pavement in a cloud of dust. Negi was stunned by the sight, and wondered how she could have done it.

The distraction almost cost him his life. The flicker of movement in the corner of his eye gave him only an instant to react. He managed to launch himself backwards, barely avoiding the business end of Mitsuha's whip as it slashed down. Flying stone fragments stung his face, and he gaped as he saw the crater the whip had left.

"I can't believe I have to fight a human kid!" Mitsuha groused, withdrawing her whip with an expert flick that would have put a Cossack to shame. "I'm not gonna hold back!"

"I don't want to harm you!" Negi called back, levelling his staff.

"You? Hurt me?!" Mitsuha snorted. "Get real!"

"_Ras tel ma scir magister_." A halo of white light surrounded Negi as the magic began to flow. He opened his eyes, and saw the confused look on Mitsuha's face. She wouldn't know what hit her.

"_Coèuntes, sagittent inimicum meam! Sagitta Magica! Series Lucis!_"

Arrows of bright light leapt from the tip of his staff, fanning out as they soared through the air towards Mitsuha. The Sekirei's eyes widened in shock, but it was already too late, as the sagitta vectored in towards her. The blasts struck, exploding with a roar and a flash of blinding light. Negi squeezed his eyes shut, setting his feet as the hot wind rushed over him.

He opened his eyes, and saw a blasted crater where his adversary had stood a moment earlier. A pair of scored furrows led away from the crater to Mitsuha, standing crouched in a defensive posture, arms crossed in front of her face. She was scorched and blackened, but still alive.

"Master!" Negi looked up to see Mikogami sprawled on the grass, stars in his eyes. The grey-haired man stood in front, in a defensive posture much like Mitsuha, shielding his master.

"What the _hell _was that?!" Mitsuha snarled. She rose, cracking her whip to vent her anger. Negi felt a cold lump in his stomach as he saw the fury in her eyes. "How'd you get a power like that, huh?!"

"I am a Magister Mage!" Negi called back, hoping that the name might mean something, and convince her to back down. "You have felt my power! Now let this be an end to it!"

"Like hell!" Mitsuha snapped. "I'm not running from some kid!

She cracked her whip, and Negi cried out in surprise as the whip coiled around his staff and yanked it from his hands.

"Let's see how you do without that stick!" Mitsuha smirked in triumph at having disarmed him so effortlessly.

Negi willed his heart to slow, letting the magic flow into his limbs. His _Cantus Bellax _had gotten a lot better since he'd started training with his students Evangeline and Ku Fei, and a part of him was glad of a chance to use it again.

He launched himself at Mitsuha, magic propelling his feet like wind from a rotor. Mitsuha's sneer melted into disbelief as his glowing fist flashed towards her face. She dropped, his fist hissing through the air where her head had been, and swept her legs around to catch Negi from below. Negi grunted in pain as they connected, the impact hurling him away to the side. He thrust out one hand, felt it touch the ground, and cart-wheeled to his feet, spreading his legs as he skidded backwards.

Mitsuha leapt to her feet, snarling with rage. She cracked her whip again, but Negi was ready for her. He jabbed his left arm up, letting the whip coil around it, then gave it a hard yank. Taken by surprise, Mitsuha staggered a step forward. In an instant she began to recover, but Negi was already upon her, his glowing fist driving into her stomach and hurling her into a nearby tree.

Negi shook the whip from his arm, glaring hard at the blonde Sekirei as she rose to her knees. She was obviously hurt, but by no means beaten.

"I don't need my staff to fight," he said grimly. "It's time for you to…"

Glittering threads whipped from the mist and coiled around his arms and legs. Negi tried to break free but the wires pulled tighter, biting into his flesh.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you," said another female voice, sounding a lot like that of Mitsuha. "These strings were made by MBI."

Negi glanced around, and saw Mitsuha's twin standing nearby. She stood in a combat stance, her legs braced, with the gleaming threads reaching from her outstretched hands. She smirked as their eyes met, like a cat ready to play.

"You've got some nerve Mitsuki!" Mitsuha complained, rising to her feet. "I can handle this brat just fine!"

"Yeah right! Like you were doing a minute ago?" her twin sneered.

Negi used his _Cantus Bellax_, his arms and legs glowing with the concentrated magic. The wires tensed as his muscles bulged, sending jabs of pain as his flesh bulged around them, but they would not break. He yanked his right arm, hoping to catch Mitsuki off-balance, but the blonde shifted her stance to compensate. He yanked his other arm, but Mitsuki's smirk widened as she compensated again.

He was trapped.

* * *

Akitsu stared intently at Negi as Mitsuha cracked her whip. The boy was putting up a good fight, very good for a human, but there could be only one outcome.

Her heart clenched as Mitsuha's whip struck him again, and again. The reaction surprised her, for she had thought her heart empty, incapable of reaction. She had thought it lost, for it had been torn out. Torn out along with her wings.

A cold lethargy congealed inside her, numbing her to the world. It froze her muscles, slowed her thoughts, drowning all sensation. It would not allow her to move, to react.

But there was warmth out there, in the shape of that young boy. Warmth, tenderness, perhaps even love. All the things she had tried to forget. All the things she was doomed never to know.

In a few moments, it would all be snuffed out. And there was nothing she could do about it. Not her. Not a discarded number, against three winged Sekirei. She would die for sure, and for one who could never, ever, be her Ashikabi.

Akitsu felt a pain in her hand, and it took her a moment to realise that she was clenching her fist. Something inside her was rebelling. Something inside her was still shining, in the place where her heart had once resided. It was reaching out, yearning for that tiny centre of warmth in a cold, loveless universe, just a few minutes away.

What did it matter if he couldn't wing her? Who cared if he couldn't really be her Ashikabi? What else was there?

What was there, for her, in an eternity spent alone?

The coldness fled from about her heart, rushing out into the air around her. But it did not go far, and Akitsu did not wish it to. The cold was a part of her.

* * *

Negi gritted his teeth as the whip struck again. His _Cantus Bellax _took the brunt of it, but it could not stop a line of incandescent pain blazing across his chest.

"This is getting annoying!" Mitsuha complained. "How tough is this brat?!"

"Just strangle him already!" Mitsuki retorted. "We haven't got all night!"

"Fine, fine." Mitsuha drew back her whip hand. Negi braced himself, imagining the whip coiling around his throat, drawing tight to choke him.

He remembered Takata's warning about the Sekirei, the warning he had unwittingly ignored. He saw the murderous gleam in Mitsuha's eyes, and it chilled him to the bone.

But then the gleam was gone, as was her smirk. Mitsuha leapt away, and Negi gasped as spears of ice jutted up from the ground where she had stood a moment earlier. Glittering shards flashed through the air, slicing through the threads that bound him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" demanded Mitsuki. Negi hesitated, then realised she wasn't talking to him. He glanced around, and his heart leapt to see Akitsu standing nearby, right hand outstretched.

"I won't let you kill him," she said. Her voice was the same deadpan it had been a few moments ago, but something in her aura brooked no resistance.

"Just give it up!" snapped Mitsuha, with a crack of her whip. "It's not like he can wing you! Why fight for some little brat?!"

"Because…" Akitsu's answer trailed off, and Negi wondered for a moment what her reason really was.

"Like I actually care!" Mitsuha snarled, unleashing her threads once again. Akitsu flicked her outstretched hand, raising a wall of gleaming ice to halt them. Negi called back his staff with a thought, and dropped into a combat stance.

"_Ras tel ma scir magister! __Coèuntes, sagittent inimicum meam! Sagitta Magica! Series Lucis!_"

The arrows flew, and the twin Sekirei screamed as the explosions engulfed them. Negi flinched as the blast wave shattered Akitsu's ice barrier, raising his arms to cover his face. He looked up, and saw the ground in front of him pocked with craters, the trees blasted to matchwood. Mitsuki and Mitsuha lay sprawled amid the devastation, but as the smoke cleared Negi could saw that grey-haired young man standing there, arms raised to protect his head.

"Well," the man drawled, lowering his arms and fixing Negi with a piercing stare. "Looks like it's my turn."

He tapped his sword tip on the ground, and Negi felt the vibrations an instant before the earth erupted under his feet. He hit the ground hard, and then had the wind knocked out of him as Akitsu landed on top.

There was a remarkably long pause.

"Ashikabi," Akitsu whispered, caressing his cheek with a tenderness that belied her frigid powers.

"Hold still just a minute!" cried Chamo, appearing from out of nowhere.

"Chamo!" Negi gasped, the weight of Akitsu's not-insubstantial breasts making it hard to breathe. "Where did you…?" He trailed off as he saw the ferret circling around him with a piece of chalk.

"Mutsu?" Mikogami pointed at the ferret, eyes wide. "Did that ferret just talk?"

"Yes," the grey-haired sekirei replied, "I think it did."

"Now aniki!" Chamo came to a halt, the magic circle complete. "The pactio!"

"But…Chamo…" It was all so sudden, so unseemly.

"There's no other way aniki! Quick, before they wise up!"

Negi looked up into Akitsu's eyes, his heart wrenching as he saw the loneliness and desolation behind them. Something, something precious, had been taken from her. He knew not what, or how, or why, but its absence was plain to see.

He was frightened. How deep did her terrible, desperate need run? Did she understand the nature of a probationary contract? Would she settle for his friendship? His compassion?

Chamo was right. There was no other choice.

"Pactio!" exclaimed Chamo. Blinding light shone from the magic circle, hiding the world beyond. For those few moments they were alone, in a universe meant only for themselves.

"Ashikabi," Akitsu whispered, and kissed him full on the lips. The light erupted around them, an explosion of new-born magic, and then faded to nothing.

Akitsu stood up, turning to face Mikogami and his Sekirei, who stared at her in mute bewilderment. Negi rose with her, the euphoria soothing his pain and filling him with new strength.

"But…she can't!" Mikogami screamed, rounding on a still-stoic Mutsu. "You said she couldn't be winged!"

"She wasn't," Mutsu replied, staring intently at Akitsu. "I don't know what that was."

"_Sis mea pars per decem secundas_," Negi intoned, his eyes closed in concentration. "_Ministra Negi, Akitsu_!" A bolt of light leapt from his hand, circled twice round Akitsu, then dived into her chest. Akitsu gasped, then straightened as the magic empowered her. Her eyes narrowed, and she brought her arms up across her chest. Ice erupted from the ground around her, crackling as it spread and solidified, sharp stalagmites stabbing into the sky.

"Mutsu!" Mikogami bleated, staring in horrified fascination at Akitsu. "Mutsu do something! Get in there and destroy him!"

"That's not a good plan," Mutsu replied calmly. "We've no idea they're capable of."

"I'll give you a big kiss!" the youth whined, puckering his lips and leaning closer. "Come on, do the incantation for me!"

"No thanks." Mutsu wrapped a narrow arm around Mikogami's waist and hefted him as if he were a small child.

"We're leaving!" he called to Mitsuha and Mitsuki, who had managed to stand up. "That means you too Yomi!"

"Damn it!" screeched Yomi's voice from somewhere nearby. Mutsu gave Negi and Akitsu one last glance, then leapt into the darkness.

* * *

_**Maison Izumo**_

"Welcome back!" Miya called, as she came strolling along the corridor. "Did you…oh my!"

Negi and Asuna stood upon the threshold, looking distinctly sheepish. Akitsu stood in between them, with remarkable composure for a big-breasted woman wearing nothing but a shirt and a lab coat.

"What's happened to you both?" Miya exclaimed, seeing the state Negi and Asuna were in. "You look like you've fought a battle! And who's your friend?"

"Miya-san." Negi gestured to Akitsu. "This is Akitsu, a friend of ours who's gotten into some terrible trouble. I'm afraid things got a little…unpleasant." He chuckled nervously.

"I can see." Miya crouched in front of Negi, examining his injuries. "You poor child! Getting caught up in violence!" There was something unsettling in her smile.

"I…I assure you, Miya-san." Negi was growing increasingly nervous. "I can handle myself in a fight."

"Handle yourself?" Miya turned to stare at Asuna, the air growing ever more frigid. "Asuna-san? Have you been making this sweet little boy fight in deadly battles?"

Asuna and Negi both flinched as the demon head appeared. Akitsu seemed unaffected.

"I must ask a favour, Miya-san," Negi asked. "Can Akitsu stay here? I will of course pay her share of the rent."

"That won't be necessary." Miya's demonic aura vanished. "My late husband never turned anyone away. And in any case I'm curious." She giggled behind her hand. "It's not every day that young ladies drop in on me unexpectedly."

There was silence for a few moments as they heard the sound. It was too faint to be identified, but seemed to be growing louder and louder. Negi and Asuna looked at one-another in bewilderment as the sound became a long, drawn-out scream.

The scream was suddenly cut off, replaced by a loud rustling, then a dull thump. All four hurried to the sliding door further along the corridor, and looked out into the garden.

There, lying sprawled at the foot of a tree, was what appeared to be a young man. On top of him was a young woman, her red and white outfit torn to ribbons by her encounter with the tree.

"Uh…are you okay, Musubi-chan?" the young man asked, coming to his senses.

"Yes!" replied the girl. "I'm sorry!"

* * *

_**Atop the MBI Building**_

"Yes. Really? I see. Very well."

Takami Sahashi snapped her phone shut, a slight smile crossing her face. A problem that had been bothering her for some time had just been resolved.

"_Take good care of her, Negi Springfield_," she thought, as she stared out over the city. "_She'll do the same for you_."

She was glad, more so than she had been in some time. It was one less thing to worry about, after what had happened in the arboretum.

"What was that, Takami?"

Takami managed, with some effort, to silence a snort of disgust as she glanced at the man standing in the parapet in front of her. He had a shock of white hair, and a white cloak that billowed in the evening wind.

"The Akitsu problem," she said, unsure of how much she should tell him. "It's been resolved."

"Ah, good news!" replied Hiroto Minaka cheerfully. "I know you were worried about her Takami. And it really would be a shame for her to be left out of our magnificent epic."

It was all Takami could do not to shudder. Hiroto Minaka was a man like few others. Probably the brightest mind ever to graduate from Tokyo University, a universally-acclaimed acknowledged 'super-genius', and the founder and Chairman of the MBI conglomerate.

And what had he done with it?

It was frustrating. It was infuriating. It drove Takami wild to think of what they might have done, what they might have achieved, if that lunatic would let go of his fantasies. What might they have accomplished if he could just accept the world for what it was?

But he wouldn't. Not now, and probably not ever. Even after all the research, all the effort, and all the heartache, MBI's only purpose was to make possible all his mad dreams, and to give him the power to ensure that no one, no organisation, and no government, could ever stop him.

Many had tried, none had succeeded. She could never forget what she had seen on Kamikura Island, when the governments of the world had tried to plunder MBI's secrets by force. Hundreds of men and women had died for that conceit, never really knowing what they were up against, or that they were doomed the moment they made landfall.

Or even why they were doing it.

She didn't hate Minaka for that. She knew better than to think the Japanese government, or any government, would be of any help to her. She did not fear for herself, or for her family, but rather for her other family, her one hundred and eight surrogate children. She knew only too well what would become of the Sekirei if the governments got their filthy hands on them. It was for them, for the little birds, that she stayed with him.

Besides, the deaths of those soldiers and sailors had put her name firmly on the hit list. After all, someone had to answer for it. Someone had to pay for making the governments of the world look like a pack of blithering incompetents.

So she would remain. She, Takami Sahashi, Chief Researcher of MBI, would see the Sekirei plan through to the end. It was all she could do for her little birds.

"I heard a very interesting story a few moments ago," Minaka commented. "Would you like to hear it?"

"Okay." Takami wondered what would happen if the clock behind them was to chime at that very moment.

"Apparent young Mikogami has suffered an embarrassment." Going by his tone, Minaka had enjoyed the tale immensely. "At the hands of a teenage girl and a young boy." He turned to look sideways at Takami, his eyes blazing with lunatic energy behind his glasses. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you Takami?"

"I'm afraid not." It was only half a lie. "We monitored a battle involving two of his Sekirei, but their opponents didn't register."

Even without that little detail, and the information she had gotten from Homura, the news had given her no small pleasure. The long scar over her left eye was a permanent memento of his greed, and she rejoiced that someone had put the wind out of his sails.

"Which means they can't be Sekirei." Minaka chuckled as he turned away to stare out over the city. "I wonder if this means they've gotten involved."

"And who is they?" Takami asked, intrigued.

"I don't really know," Minaka replied brightly. "And that makes it all the more entertaining! It'll add some spice to the Green Girl event!"

Takami shuddered. Only he would think of making that fiasco into a special event. It didn't seem to matter to him that she was all alone in the arboretum, with only the monstrously-overgrown plants and Homura to protect her.

"_Kusano…"_

"This is a bad idea," she said, unable to stay silent a moment longer. "If we tell every Ashikabi in the city that she's in there, there's no telling who'll go after her."

"You're worried Mikogami will press his suit again," Minaka replied, chuckling. "Quite the little Don Juan isn't he?"

"This is no joke!" Takami spat. "After what he did…!"

"The Discipline Squad has already given him a stern talking-to on my behalf," Minaka interrupted airily. "He insisted it was a misunderstanding, since she was out in the open." He turned to glance at her again. "I wonder whose fault that was."

Takami resisted a sudden urge to hit him. What made it worse was that she knew he was right. Kusano had been her responsibility, and she had let her down.

"She…wanted to go outside."

"In any case," Minaka went on. "He knows what'll happen to him if he breaks the rules again. Besides," he chuckled again, "any one of those eager young Ashikabis could be her true destined one. Not telling would give the little cradle-snatcher an unfair advantage."

"_Yes_," Takami thought sourly. "_Perhaps it would_."

She had no choice, in the end, but to trust in Homura's judgement. It was up to him to protect Kusano, and to make sure destiny took its proper course. For the moment, he was also the only one who could find anything out about the two mysterious fighters named Negi Springfield and Asuna Kagurazaka.

"_Oh well_," she thought, allowing herself to smile again. "_This'll be something worth looking into. It might stir things up a little, in ways that lunatic won't like_."

* * *

**(This took a lot longer than I expected, mostly due to stressing myself into insanity over the battle sequence. I've endured a lot of complaints over the last version, mostly to do with the issue of how powerful Negi is compared to the Sekirei. I've found both manga very difficult to interpret, so I can only say that I did the best I could.) **


End file.
